Photography Class Captures Greenhouse Effect

A student in an Intermediate Photography class photographs some of the many varied tropical plants in the Biodiversity Education and Research Greenhouses. (Garrett Spahn ’18 (CLAS)/UConn Photo)

During the cold winter months, the fresh green foliage of the tropical plants in the Biodiversity Education and Research Greenhouses are a welcome sight.

Earlier this week, Kaleigh Rusgrove, a graduate student in the MFA program, took students in her Intermediate Photography class to the greenhouses to photograph some of the many varied species there. The class is offered each semester.

Rusgrove says she encourages her students to find opportunities to hone their photography skills on campus. “I always hope it might change their mindset about how they approach shooting, as many students feel they need to go off campus or seek out destinations, often forgetting we have amazing opportunities right in Storrs.”

The Biodiversity Greenhouse collection includes about 3,000 species from around the world, and generally there are a bunch that are in bloom at any one time. To find out what’s currently in flower, go to the greenhouse website.

The greenhouses, located behind the Biology/Physics Building, are open to the public this spring Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

This one-day conference brings together scholars and journalists at the University of Connecticut and across the U.S. to discuss the various forms that authoritarianism is taking in the world today, from the Philippines to India, to Honduras and Venezuela, to Europe and the United States. It also aims to place this authoritarianism in historical perspective, comparing it to the anti-democratic currents of yesterday, whether in fascist Europe or in the Cold War dictatorships of Latin America.

About CLAS

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is the academic core of learning and research at UConn. We are committed to the full spectrum of academics across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. We give students a liberal arts and sciences education that empowers them with broad knowledge, transferable skills, and an ability to think critically about important issues across a variety of disciplines.